My Reading Running and Recipe spot, plus a Ten of the Best on the occasional weekend.

Tuesday, 9 August 2016

The Girls by Emma Cline

You've all seen this cover.

But the one on the right is the one I read, and although I love the red and blue (with white text) the lighter cover is closer to the essence of the story.

For those of you who know that this is a novel about the Charles Manson murders, don't be put off reading this book. And, if you can, forget what you know about them, and take this at face value. I know that there has been a huge amount of hype in that regard, but this book is much more than that story.

Debut novelist, famous writer, Emma Cline has created a book of great beauty. She delves into the world of the insecurities, passion and anxieties of teenage girls with a deftness and elegance that astonished me.

Her prose is simply gorgeous, and that is enough reason to read this. But it is the strong visual imagery, the extravagant portrait painted of lives lived not so well, and the reasons why that will stay with me for a very long time.

We haven't been as caught up with the huge amount of marketing of this books as elsewhere in the world, and I am grateful for that. It would have been interesting to see how well The Girls did without it. It is good enough to like anyway.